Test activity(s)

[landnrailroader]

Colleagues,

I need some help. I want to create the most simple activities in order to test routes that are under construction. I have the original instructions for creatinig them but is there a simple, no frills way to create an activity. For example, I was able to create a few activities with MSTS which I have on a old XP machine and they work using ORTS. I also have over 100 consists counting payware, freeware, and "myware", and I have no problem creating a route using the track viewer add-on with ORTS but for the life of me I can't seem to get a viable activity using the TSRE activity function. For example, there will be no opposing traffic etc. All I want to do is be reasonably sure that the mileposts are in, sound zones, etc. before I release a route as working but incomplete, where I want incomplete to really mean -- "route could be a lot more detailed".

On some of my routes, such as the CNO&TP 2nd district, I have included some sections that were abandoned not so long ago. For example in 1963 all of the tunnels but 4 were eliminated and in one instance a totally new line, some 10 miles in length was involved. At the ends of the section, there is a manual #10 turnout so that if one is curious, one can set up a route over the old line, which I need to do to check it -- BEWARE, THE OLD ROUTES WON'T CLEAR DOUBLE STACKS. On the first district, a new line about 6 miles in length bypassed one tunnel and this was done around 1940.

Jerry Sullivan (landnrailroader)

[adreid]

Hi Jerry,
If you have consists and paths, just use Open Rails "Explore in Activity Mode" function. If this does not serve your purpose, contact me via PM -- I can probably provide instructions for building a "simple" activity.

Regards,
Dan

[landnrailroader]

Thanks Dan, I figured out what I was doing wrong, but I have another question. When placing mileposts in the original MSTS, if you were on multiple tracks, it would place a marker on all the tracks but I notice now when I place a milepost it only puts a marker on the track that I select. The only work-around I could think of would be to place the same milepost on the other track(s) and sink the mast under ground level, so only one shows. I guess this is a factor in TSRE.

Jerry

[eric]

There should be a radius property for the milepost. It defaults to 5m if I recall, but you can extend it.

Sent from my SM-S911U using Tapatalk

[landnrailroader]

Eric,

The radius property was already "20", I guess 20 meters but then I noticed a item called "expand". When I selected that, the marker showed up on the adjacent track with a red line connecting the two, so evidently expand is the command to add the link to other tracks, maybe within 20 meters.

So I have attached a picture of what happened when I used the expand function. Prior to that the milepost and marker in the middle was all that was present. The left track is the lead to the north end of Oakdale (TN) yard.

In the other image, lets imagine that Eric's new abode is somewhere in the image. This is the Nemo tunnel(s) looking north. The right-hand is the new tunnel from 1963 that is the only one in use today, while the other is the old tunnel that Eric has shown us images of. The lefthand track, after exiting the tunnel on the north side, would cross the existing track and enter another tunnel that can be seen from passing trains. Then further on, that track crossed the Emory River and went through a 3rd tunnel before rejoining the new line. The angle where the tracks cross at grade was nowhere near anything we have, so I used two #10 turnouts.

I will say that if someone gets this route and wants to do away with the alternate "old" lines, they can and in most cases all that will be necessary is to delete the manual turnouts and replace with straight track pieces. You would then have the situation that existed after midnight on a July day in 1963. Oman Construction Co., now gone, was a Nashville, TN based outfit that did most of the construction on the new lines. So officially, the rathole died in 1963. Several articles in TRAINS have been written about this activity.


Jerry